What is it about a new day at the beach?  I’ve taken numerous sunset shots as a source of relaxation from the everyday grind of television.  But this group of images describes a different feel.  My camera takes us on a journey through the tourist section of Virginia’s largest city–before sunrise.  The darkness gave me some incredible sepia and long-exposure shots and set a mysterious mood of changing color as the sun stayed hidden behind a grey blanket of puffy clouds.  So enjoy a different view of the Virginia Beach oceanfront–a pre dawn Monday in April–as captured through the lens.

It sits against a rural canvas of green fields and unkempt woods that line US 158.  At first glance you think this tidy white structure is  one of the many houses of worship that dot the North Carolina countryside.  But as I was driving toward the Outer Banks, taking various snapshots along the way for my monthly “Through the Lens” feature– which airs on The Hampton Roads Show,  I did a double-take when I saw this wooden structure sitting on bricks over what appeared to be freshly raked dirt.  I turned my car around, and sped back to this gleaming wood building, and noticed a sign laying by the building laced with freshly turned earth.  It read: “Help Us Restore the Old Jarvisburg Colored School 1867-1950″

I walked around the simple building in awe of the history that must have passed through these plain double doors.  It was the center of learning for African American students for more than 80 years–one of five “colored” schools in Currituck County until they consolidated in 1950.   The buildings were then sold off by the county.  Finally in 1966, the Currituck County School Board approved the Freedom on Choice School Plan following the 1964 Civil Right’s Act. This began the consolidation of schools into an integrated system.

These pictures were my favorite on this most recent “Through the Lens” odessey.   Currituck County Comissioner Paul O’Neal says the county has already put more than $500,000 toward its renovation, but the job is not quite finished, “we’ re going to to have the rest of the building restored and opened as a museum.  We have about $200,000 committed to finishing the interior.”   Though this project has faced some delays in recent years, O’Neal hopes to have the museum opened by the end of this year.  

The restoration project began in 1998 when alumni began efforts to save the school.  Peggy Birkemeier, senior regional associate for North Carolina Community Foundation says it still has to raise about $30,000 to furnish the museum, which she says “will show historical information about all five schools from the Civil War to desegregation.”  You can find more information about the Jarvisburg Colored School here: http://www.historicjarvisburgcoloredschool.com/history.shtml.

Watch how he drives the lane and moves around his obstacles–timing his moves with precision.  It doesn’t look like a Jordanesque flight through the sky, or a Shaq-like power move that takes all five defenders to the rack.  Jeremy Lin’s march seems choreographed as he pulls up and lays a floating one-hander off the glass, and through the rim; the ball brushing the nylon cords on its descent, cuing the crowd for a lavish eruption of praise.

It’s become routine over the last two weeks.  The New York Knicks have put together a winning streak, with this unlikely hero in the middle of it.  Yes, I said it, hero.  It’s a word often abused by the press.  It seems we apply this moniker to anyone who holds a microphone, throws a ball, or swings a bat or a club.  But the recent wave of “Linsanity” that has swept the nation, can be traced to more than a basketball player who has scored more points in his first six games, than any other NBA player since 1976.   All you need to do is watch five minutes of television and click the latest offerings of American pop culture on-line.  We’re inundated with images of tattooed athletes exhibiting a look-at-me narcissism that seems to demand some form of anti-social or illegal behavior for admission to this ”bad boys club.”

This is not the cliched tirade about declining standards among professional athletes.  We know bad boys in sports are nothing new.   Maybe the public is growing weary of the 24 cable coverage of drug arrests, shootings, rape allegations, and other forms of childish often criminal behaviors.   So along comes the clean-cut “For God and Country” gladiator that feeds into our desire for something better.  Tim Tebow, quarterback of the Denver Broncos, who beat my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers with one throw,  is in the class.   Now, enter a Harvard graduate of Taiwanese descent, who wasn’t even drafted out of college in 2010.  He was a fifth string point guard–that’s right, fifth–until his meteoric rise off his brother’s couch into superstardom.  Like Tebow, Lin is a man of faith,  who exudes child-like enthusiasm for the game and his teammates.

WAVY-TV got a glimpse into what makes Lin tick.   You can watch Bruce Radar’s interview of Lin’s aunt, who lives in Virginia Beach, and decide for yourself.   A quick poll around the WAVY newsroom found that Lin’s play and his attitude is a refreshing change from the in your face “dance after every play” athlete that dominates our culture.  In other words, the “bad boy” has become a cliche.   Maybe we’re looking for heroes again; something to emulate.  Lin may be the embodiment of that mold.   Let’s hope that mold doesn’t get broken anytime soon.

I’m getting back to the essence of my “Through the Lens” blog, which is finding beauty in your neighborhood.  Many of the shots in this group, are withing walking distance for me.   Keeping in tune with Valentine’s Day, these locales have a quiet romantic quality.  I proposed to my lovely wife, Crystal, at one of these spots, and you’ll see which one on the my Through the Lens installment on The Hampton Roads Show on Friday, February 24th.  For now, enjoy the view, even though you may have seen some of these shots before, I think some of these are worth a second look.

It could be perched on a utility pole which it’s eye fixed on cars flashing through an intersection.  It can render a judgment for police against a motorist who takes liberties with a traffic signal;  or maybe it’s watching you stroll outside a public building, or its lens scans the concrete ramp of  a parking  garage after midnight.

Surveillance cameras are popping up in various public locations in Hampton Roads; a watchful eye against human misbehavior. Privacy advocates call it something else.

“ When the government puts cameras up in public places, like parks and sidewalks, we believe it is infringing on the individual right to privacy,” says  Kent Willis, Executive Director of American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.  “The government has no right to track your movements unless it suspects you, individually,  of being engaged in a criminal activity.”

Tracking criminal activity is the primary motivation of private business as it releases those grainy recordings of robberies, burglaries and other misdeeds that wind up on WAVY-TV.   There’s  no evidence to suggest  surveillance in these cases “deters” criminals, but police say it greatly aids in the apprehension of those who commit these acts.

“I can say it helps us immensely as investigators,” says Detective Allison Erickson from Newport News Police.  That city has seen a 33 percent drop in violent crime over the last decade.   Police will not go so far as to say that decrease  is linked to more use of surveillance cameras, but investigators say it’s been a help.  “In cases where we may not have a witness, it gives us a witness,” says Erickson.

But the increasing presence of these electronic witnesses also concerns the ACLU.

“Keep in mind that while most cameras can now only be used to identify you in case of a crime, the way technology is developing, it won’t be long before those cameras can identify you by name.  We are not far away from a time when the government may be able to know when you left your house, where you went and what you did.  That should truly frighten us,” says Willis.

Mark Dionne who owns Eagle Security Solutions, a Chesapeake company which installs surveillance systems, sees it differently,   ”Certainly if you’re in public, you have no expectation of privacy, and if you have no expectation of privacy, then I don’t care where you have a camera at that point.”

It’s beginnings date to the very genesis of America itself.  Defensive fortifications were built in Hampton starting in 1609.  Fast forward two centuries and a more substantial imprint of our nation’s emerging power was completed in 1834.  Fort Monroe was named after Amercia’s 5th president, and during the Civil War,  it was one of the few areas of the Old Dominion which remained in Union hands, and thus became a beacon of freedom for runaway slaves.   It was the last active Army Fort when it was decommissioned in September 2011, and thus has a mysterious feel when one strolls the grounds on a cold morning as I did recently.  Here are a few impressions from my camera– many of them recording a stark black and white look of a proud but time-worn edifice that is Freedom’s Fortress.  A title that led President Obama to declare Ft. Monroe a National Monument and forever be preserved as part of the American fabric.

Sunshine is replaced by encroaching darkness; it’s a cloak nature throws over us for the coming winter.  Those early evenings, once a stage for warm sunsets,  exude a blue chill that can only be warmed by the fireplace and the soft electric colors that dot the skylines and hillsides.  They provide gentle illumination that comes but in December, when our spirits open to Christmas.  These shots are but a few I recorded in recent days as the skies turned a deep blue–a backdrop for warm yellows and reds, and faded greens and blues that light the way to another holiday season.  Enjoy this Christmas walk through parts of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Williamsburg–a holiday view of Hampton Roads, through the lens.

Interviewing President Obama in Cabinet Room of the White House (White House Photo)

A trip to the White House is rare.  To have access to areas like the South Lawn and the Rose Garden; even more so, but to interview the man elected who makes decisions that affect the free world?  That’s once in a lifetime, even for a local television journalist.  This is not a political column, so I’m putting all partisanship aside.  WAVY-TV was chosen, along with eight other local television stations, to send an anchor to interview President Obama about his American Jobs Act.  It doesn’t take an astute political pundit to understand why the White House put this together.   All of us knew this was one more way to deliver the administration’s message after his $447 billion dollar plan stalled in Congress.  Nonetheless, an interview with the nation’s Chief Executive is enough to bring a butterfly, or two, to my usually cast-iron stomach.

With "First Dog" Bo

It began with the assembly on the South Lawn, a place you rarely see on the daily review of Washington politics on NBC Nightly News.  It is reserved mostly for state functions, but on this day it served as a backdrop for local live reports on our experiences.    One by one, we’d be escorted through the Rose Garden to the West Wing, which housed the Cabinet Room.   I was called first, and was brought to the door, which stood as the only barrier between my questions about Hampton Roads, and the President of the United States.  Small talk with a White House assistant chewed up some of the moments, while a crew set up two cameras and microphones.  I remained cool.  “Will the president be inside the room, or will he make an entrance?”    His assistant answered with a smile, “he’ll be the first person you see when you walk in.”  I nodded as if I’ve been here before, but  clearly I was in uncharted territory.

Preparing for live reports from the White House

The door swung open and President Obama was taking a drink of water as I walked in.   We extended our hands simultaneously, and I offered “Good morning, Mr. President.  I’m Tom Schaad from WAVY-TV in Hampton Roads.  Thank you for taking the time to talk with us.”  President Obama reciprocated by showing a cool gratitude toward me.  I stood behind the spot they had designated as we talked about my hometown of Pittsburgh, and I couldn’t resist plugging my Steelers, and their coach from Newport News, Mike Tomlin.  “He’s a good coach,” the president said coolly.

Reporting from the South lawn of the White House

Finally, a man behind President Obama held up five fingers.  Time to start.  Five minutes.  Three questions.  Watch the interview here, and notice my awkward exit!    Photojournalist Jeff Myers captured some “behind the scenes” shots  as well.

This is a tale of what is a seemingly quiet neighborhood,  steeped in history with tree-lined streets and charming homesteads that hearken back to America’s beginning.  Col. William Crawford founded Olde Towne Portsmouth in the early part of the 18th century–a neighborhood that grew from waterfront commerce.  By day, this rustic grid of early America shows and innocent face.  But as the sun sets, something seems to take hold.  The bells tolling from the many houses of worship seem to awaken spirits long dead, or trapped in some other dimension.  I took a little walk one night and met up with a gentleman named Danny Donovan, who leads mortals in search of adventure during his ghost-walk tours.   My camera captured the neighborhood’s dark side.   Have look at some of the photos I snapped, and please watch the Hampton Roads Show at 11 AM on Friday October 28thfor a more in-depth look at this haunted hamlet–Through the Lens.

I usually reserve my “Through the Lens” series for all things local.  But I wanted to share this monumental event as recorded by my camera.  Still photos capture and preserve those fleeting moments otherwise lost forever.   Crystal and I recently became husband and wife, and the backdrop for our first moments in this sacred union was the majestic path carved through California wine country known as the Napa Valley.  These are but a few images of this amazing land known for its first-class eateries, natural beauty, and of course, the fruit of the vine.  Enjoy this nugget of a pictorial sojourn through the Golden State!